It is generally known to use a device to evaporate a volatile fluid into a space to deliver a variety of benefits, such as air freshening or reducing malodors. Non-energized systems, for example, systems that are not powered by electrical energy, are a popular way for the delivery of volatile fluids to the atmosphere.
US 2010/0308126A1 to The Procter & Gamble Company offers a delivery engine having a reservoir, a rupturable substrate, vapor permeable membrane sealed to the reservoir, and a rupture tab positioned between the rupturable substrate and the vapor permeable membrane. To breach the rupturable substrate and activate the delivery engine, the rupture tab is compressed perpendicularly to the plane of the rupturable substrate by a user's hand or by insertion of the delivery engine into a housing. Such configuration of the rupture tab may add bulk to the delivery engine, add production/shipping costs, and require additional protective packaging to prevent premature rupture. Additionally, where a thermoformed reservoir is used, a horizontal indexing operation involving thermoforming, filling, and sealing is required to avoid fluid spills from the thermoform during production. This may result in limited throughput processing.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,069,985 to Diapack Ltd. offers a sealed, single-dose, break-open package for containing a product, such as shampoo. The package includes a semi-rigid plastic material and a flexible plastic sheet that is sealed to the semi-rigid plastic material along their perimeters, forming a pocket for containing a dose of product. The semi-rigid plastic material has an incision that varies in depth to guide controlled breakage and form an outlet from which the contents exit the package. A potential issue in using this type of break-open package for continuously delivering a volatile fluid over a period of time is adding a vapor permeable membrane that forms a leak-proof seal between the vapor permeable membrane and the semi-rigid plastic material, at least while the volatile fluid is being emitted to a space. Another potential issue is designing an incision on the semi-rigid plastic material that prevents a volatile fluid from leaking through the incision prior to activation, and prevents the incision from breaking into a sealed edge (i.e. edge where the barrier layer is sealed to the reservoir) and leaking after the device is activated
As such, there exists a need for a method for continuously delivering, over a period time and without leakage, a volatile fluid to the atmosphere by activating a low-cost, single-use, portable device having a vapor permeable membrane.